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Family Guy
Family Guy is an American story-within-a-story adult animated sitcom created by comedian Seth MacFarlane for the Fox Broadcasting Company. The show focuses on the Griffins, a six-member family consisting of parents Peter and Lois Griffin, children Meg, Chris, and Stewie Griffin, and Brian Griffin, the family dog. Although it may seem like a funny cartoon everyone would like to sit down to, it is in reality an incredibly tragic story. The series takes place within a fantasy world within Peter's mind. The family was conceived by MacFarlane after developing two animated films, The Life of Larry and Larry & Steve. MacFarlane redesigned the films' protagonist, Larry, and his dog, Steve, and renamed them Peter and Brian, respectively. MacFarlane pitched a seven-minute pilot to Fox in 1998, and the show was greenlit and began production. Shortly after the third season of Family Guy had aired in 2002, Fox canceled the series, with one episode left unaired. Adult Swim burned off the episode in 2003, finishing the series' original run. However, favorable DVD sales and high ratings for syndicated reruns on Adult Swim convinced the network to renew the show in 2004 for a fourth season, which began airing on May 1, 2005. Since its debut on January 31, 1999, 289 episodes of Family Guy have been broadcast. Its fifteenth season began on September 25, 2016. Family Guy has been nominated for 12 Primetime Emmy Awards and 11 Annie Awards, and has won three of each. In 2009, it was nominated for an Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Comedy Series, the first time an animated series was nominated for the award since The Flintstones in 1961. Family Guy has also received criticism, including unfavorable comparisons to The Simpsons. Many tie-in media have been released, including Stewie Griffin: The Untold Story, a straight-to-DVD special released in 2005; Family Guy: Live in Vegas, a soundtrack-DVD combo released in 2005, featuring music from the show as well as original music created by MacFarlane and Walter Murphy; a video game and pinball machine, released in 2006 and 2007, respectively; since 2005, six books published by Harper Adult based on the Family Guy universe; and Laugh It Up, Fuzzball: The Family Guy Trilogy (2010), a series of parodies of the original Star Wars trilogy. In 2008, MacFarlane confirmed that the cast was interested in producing a feature film and that he was working on a story for a film adaptation. A spin-off series, The Cleveland Show, featuring Cleveland Brown, aired from September 27, 2009, to May 19, 2013. "The Simpsons Guy", a crossover episode with The Simpsons, aired on September 28, 2014.2 Family Guy is a joint production by Fuzzy Door Productions and 20th Century Fox Television and syndicated by 20th Television.3 In 2013, TV Guide ranked Family Guy the ninth Greatest TV Cartoon of All Time.4 Family Guy premiered for a fifteenth season on September 25, 2016. A sixteenth season was silently renewed by Fox in May 2017.5 Background Shortly before the beginning of the series, there lived a family by the surname Griffin' in Rochester, New York. The family consisted of four members, parents Peter and Lois, and children Megan and Chris, with another boy on the way. Although the family was a rather successful one, it was beyond dysfunctional. Megan, although being an incredibly beautiful and intelligent young woman, was constantly forced to over-study and exercise by her father in order to keep up her image and academic career. Chris, the family's son, was born without oxygen, resulting in severe mental retardation. As a result, he was strongly resented and often times even abused by his father due to his inability to be independent. Peter worked as a court attorney while his wife held a job in biology. Despite their success, Peter and Lois constantly engaged in tense arguments for numerous reasons ranging from Peter's treatment of their children to an affair Lois revealed she had in the past. During these times, Meg held an incredibly powerful love for her younger brother, and did everything in her strength to keep his hopes alive. Peter, on the other hand, would spend his nights drinking with his friends, Cleveland Brown, Glenn Quagmire, and Mort Goldman. Despite all the pain the family endured, Lois still retained enough joy in her life, as she had her kids, but that would soon all come to an end. January 31, 1999 On January 31, 1999, everything changed. On this fateful day, Meg, having had enough of Chris being resented at school and at home, decided to take her younger brother to a house party. However, things didn't go as planned. While dancing the night away, Chris suffered a major panic attack, convincing Megan to take him home, after she had heavily indulged on alcohol. While driving back home, due to her inebriated state, Meg began to lose control of the car. As Chris began to panic, Meg became more and more faint until she crashed into another car, killing herself along with Chris. The police arrived within minutes, and the crash was reported onto the news almost immediately, which Lois saw the moment it was put on, causing her to burst into tears. After Peter arrived home from a harsh day at work, he met Lois in the living room, and watched as she just sat on the bed, not saying a word and with tears rolling down her eyes. Confused of why, Peter decided to rest by watching the news, only to receive the shock of his life just as his wife did an hour earlier. Peter, speechless, got in his car and drove as fast as possible to the spot of the crash. His eyes began to leak as the corpses of his children were zipped up in body bags. He proceeded to drive home and stayed awake with a banging question in his head, ''Why?. Aftermath Three days later, Peter appeared at his children's funeral, but as it began, he realized Lois was nowhere to be seen. Believing his wife had not wanted to go to the funeral as it would just make her feel worse, Peter drove home to convince his wife to join him. As he entered the home, he called Lois to come with him, but heard nothing back. After going upstairs, he entered Lois' room, only to find her a few inches above the ground, with a rope around her neck. At that moment, Peter collapsed. He twitched his eyes every five seconds before letting out a shriek of misery. He ran downstairs, and began scavenging for a knife to just put an end to it all. As Peter began to descend into madness, Quagmire saw him through the window. No thought, just instinct, Quagmire smashed through the glass and shoved Peter to the ground. He restrained him around the neck with one hand and grabbed a phone with the other. As quickly as possible, he dialed 911 and Peter was taken by the authorities. After showing that he had completely lost his sanity due to the loss of everyone he had ever loved, Peter was sent to a psychiatric hospital in Quahog, Newport County, Rhode Island, where he would create the show Family Guy in his head. The Birth of Family Guy While at the hospital, Peter's sanity slowly deteriorated piece by piece. Once his mind could no longer handle the abuse, Peter created a fictional world to help him cope with the pain. Peter's desires but also his feelings at himself and others helped shape this fictitious reality. In this world, Peter's wife and children are still alive. However, there are some major changes. Due to his intense grudge at his daughter for causing the death of his family, Peter imagined her as a hideous and unpleasant teenage loser rather than the beauty she was in real life. Chris stayed the same as he was in real life as his father wanted to just see him again, regardless of whether or not he was mentally challenged. Lois, on the other hand, although her looks remained the same, was reimagined as an irresponsible, uncaring, and even sadistic woman rather than the dedicated mother that she was due to Peter's unbearable hatred for her for killing their unborn son. This child, however, would also be brought into this fantasy. The child, who Peter decided to name Stewie, was imagined into this world as not only having been born, but being an incredible genius who would always try to kill his mother due to the fact she killed him in real life. Additionally, Peter himself also changed. Although being an incredibly intelligent man, Peter hated himself due to his failure of protecting his family, and reimagined himself as the complete buffoon that he perceived himself to be. However, having wanted to truly see his family in the way he truly was, Peter created Brian, a talking family dog with Peter's exact personality that Peter would speak through in in order to feel that he was truly with the ones he loved so much. The abnormal adventures that Brian and Stewie go through in the show are the times that Peter wished he could have spent with his son.